[Beens Prayer Partners] February prayer list

Dear Friends,                                                                                       February 2006

 

What a WONDERFUL month January turned out to be!!!  Dan is now running full swing in ministry activities and we saw the Lord’s provision pour forth in so many different ways.  Overall this was a month filled with answered prayers.

 

 

REJOICE WITH US IN PRAISING HIM!!!!

 

• The food relief project which our teammates, Shawn and Sarah Gardner, initiated was able to distribute the 1^st round of food to help people get through the hunger months.  There were a couple small glitches, however things were worked out and the 2^nd round will be distributed within a matter of days.  The outpouring of finances for this project has been tremendous – we rejoice with them in God’s great provision!
• Ministry is going extremely well!

1. Classes at the center began the 1^st weekend in January.  We were all excited about the six men who’d signed up, but how amazed we were when 13 showed up for the Saturday class and 17 for the Sunday class.  We rejoice also that each of these men have stayed consistent so far (which can be a challenging thing here) and each are showing such a desire to learn.
2. The discipleship point at Rex continues to go well.  For a while numbers had been down, but in both January visits the numbers were back up with 12 people being there to study.
3. Dan’s 1^st trip out to his discipleship point in Natia went fabulously.  There were 23 men there to study representing multiple congregations from four different denominations!  These men are so hungry for the knowledge of the Word.  They’ve asked Dan if he’d consider coming out there two times per month instead of just one – we’re evaluating schedules and finances to see if that’s doable.
4. The program where rural church leaders come into town once per month for two days of study has now gotten started as well.  The main group which was expected didn’t show but several men from an extremely weak church in the bush did come in.  Again these men are so hungry to learn.  We praise God for the desire to learn that exists and for these men making the trip in to study (more on these men later).
5. One-on-one study is also in full swing.  Dan has somewhere between 5 and 7 men that are signing up each week for special study.

• Praise God for physical healing.

1. Asher came down with a case of dysentery but through a course of antibiotics is now better.
2. Sarah, our teammate who is also pregnant, came down with an extreme case of malaria (which is always more severe in pregnant women).  Praise God that the potential conflicts between medicines didn’t occur, that the baby wasn’t harmed, and that she is now home from the hospital and doing so much better.

• Praise God for the “new to us” computer which Robin now has.  Her computer was literally on its last leg and she’d asked teammates about carrying a computer over to her if she could arrange one.  Not only did they offer to carry it but offered her their old one (still 3 years newer than hers) as they’d gotten a new one.  Praise the Lord for the airline giving them free extra bags so that we didn’t even have to pay the cost of an extra bag for them to carry it to us! 

• Praise God for the small things:

1. We long ago thought to purchase a gas/electric stove.  Praise the Lord for this insight as propane was unavailable in the city for over a month.  We were able to get by using the electric burners for a long time.  Praise Him that there is now propane in the city once again.
2. For our new crock pot and so many of you who have and are sending recipes to us!!!  We’re having fun trying new things and it’s made dinner much easier.
3. Dan lost his keys last week.  These not only had a house key and keys to the center on them, but also a computer thumbnail drive which had all the most recent copies from Robin’s old computer to put on the new computer.  After 4 days the keys were finally found in Shawn’s truck!
4. For visit time with a teammate from Maputo who was here with us a few days this month.  Also for his willingness to carry up a couple packages we’d received down there.
5. For the return of teammates; Jacob & Jaynie Michael who live here in Nampula made it back as did Rachel and Alan Howell who work in a small town several hours north of us!  We’ve enjoyed catching up with each of them.
6. Esperansa is sleeping longer during the nights (though still not all the way through)!!
7. For Date Nights (we’ve agreed with another missionary couple, who also has 4 kids, to trade off and give the other a date night.  Now we’ll be able to have a fairly consistent date night at least 1x/month).

• Praise God that schooling with the kids has began to pick up more of a routine and is going well!!!

 

PLEASE PRAY:

 

• Continue to pray for the hunger issues and food shortages here.  For wisdom on our part in balancing the physical and Spiritual needs of the people and for the food program which is going on through the churches.
• Continue to pray for Josiah’s eyes – that the partial patching would maintain his vision so that we don’t have to return to full patching.
• Continue to pray for Dan’s teaching and discipling.  For attendance consistency on the part of the men coming, for wisdom in preparing lessons, and the cultural insight necessary.  Pray for his travels each month (2 trips to Rex, 1 to Natia, and wherever else he ends up going).
• Pray schooling with the kids would continue to go well and for wisdom in parenting.
• Pray others would rise up with the desire to come work here in Mozambique!

 

AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE NEED FOR TRAINING

 

Many of you have heard us say it over and over again, “There is a HUGE need in Mozambique for the training and discipling of existing church ministers and leaders.”  To help you better understand this allow me to tell you more about the men who came into town for the two days of training.   Three men (the minister, an elder, and an attendee) came from the church in Mikiburi, a rural area about 1.5 hrs from here.  Each of these men could be considered literate at best; though they technically can read words, they don’t have an understanding of what they are reading; shown in the fact they couldn’t answer even direct line questions from the material.  The minister holds that role simply because he was the 1^st to accept Christ in that church.  Each of these men have been married at least three times, one of whom was married to the witch doctor and another lady at the same time.  They are all excited about their faith in Christ and are eager to tell others and start more churches and yet they know so little!  The first day of class was spent learning the first five books of the Bible and discussing various matters which came up.  A reading in Genesis resulted in a huge discussion around the fact that, “yes humans are different from animals, that animals don’t sin and don’t have a soul.  That no one made God, but that instead He’s always existed, etc.”  There was also a huge discussion on marriage and how one is to treat their spouse.  These men returned home excited over what they had learned and I’m sure are anxious to return in February.  We praise the Lord for their hunger to learn His Word.  Pray for them.  Pray for Dan and Shawn as they try and focus on which things to teach.  Pray for these men, that they would understand what is being taught and grow in their knowledge of God and His Word.  Pray for them as they share what they learn – that they would represent God and His Word and the message of His Son in an accurate manner. 

 

Training is so needed.  Want to come help????

[Beens Prayer Partners] update on teammate

Dear friends,

Thanks so much for your prayers on our teammate, Sarah's behalf.  She is doing much better!!!  She's had several rounds of quinine treatments but should be coming home sometime this afternoon (Saturday).  She did have an ultrasound done - as best they can tell things are okay with the baby also.  Continue to pray for her - her strength is considerably weakened - malaria can be hard on a person but pregnant women are generally affected 3x as hard.

I would ask that you add her husband Shawn to your prayers.  He has a kidney stone now and is in quite a bit of pain.  In fact when we talked with him this morning, the doctors at the hospital were getting ready to hook him up to an IV simply to inundate his system with fluids in hopes of helping him to pass it more quickly.  Anyway, he could use some prayers - that his pain would ease and the stone would pass quickly!

Let me add Asher into the mix.  He's acting fine, though he does have a steep case of dysentery and possible e-coli infection.  He's on antibiotics at the moment and should be fine.  We caught him drinking the outside tap water and thus feel certain it's from this;  though that also means it may be more difficult to keep things cleared up.

Guess that's all for now.

Blessings,
Robin

Dan & Robin Been
Missionaries to Mozambique, Africa
Our Web Page: http://www.mozambiquemessages.com

[Beens Prayer Partners] prayers for teammate

Dear friends,

We'd like to ask for your prayers for our teammate, Sarah Gardner. She's currently in the special clinic here in Nampula suffering from Malaria. The case is rather complicated. She's currently 2.5 months pregnant which means she can't take one particular treatment and the other option, quinine, can have pretty serious cardiac reactions when combined with another medicine she'd been taking already as a help preventative. Anyway - they have her on an extremely slow quinine drip.  She seems to have handled the 1st dose okay - the vomiting has at least slowed/subsided.

• Please pray for a rapid recovery for her
  
• Pray there would be no reactions of the 2 medicines to each other
  
• Pray for the baby she's carrying - that the malaria nor the meds would cause harm
  
• Pray for Shawn, her husband as he helps care for her and pray for their 2 kids who are being watched by other teammates and neighbors.

Thanks so much!!!
Robin

Dan & Robin Been
Missionaries to Mozambique, Africa
Our Web Page: http://www.mozambiquemessages.com

[Beens Prayer Partners] A simple request from the Beens

Hello to all,

We have a simple request for help. We noticed that a major stress in our life was DINNER. So, one of our New Year Resolutions was to make our dinners easier. To simplify dinner and make it easier we bought a crock pot. IT HAS HELPED SO MUCH!!! Dinner is less stressful, the kitchen is not hot, and clean up is easy! So, how can you help? We only have a few recipes. If you have some favorite crock pot delicacies we would like to have your recipes. We are willing to try most anything so you can send us any type of recipe, basic, wild, or ethnic.

So can you help us?

Dan & Robin Been
Missionaries to Mozambique, Africa
Our Web Page: http://www.mozambiquemessages.com